I would say both are intellectually dishonest. I'm not about to debate the merits of Bush v. Gore though. Let's stick with Florida v. HHS.

Hiya John. Does it make you smile when in all the Supreme Court opinions it never mentions you by name like the other Justices, you simply are "THE CHIEF JUSTICE"

Riverman's characterization is entirely accurate, though. They DID give the presidency to Bush, and they DID say something like "our decision here is limited to the present circumstances and carries no precedential weight." So what he said was an entirely accurate and fair summation of the outcome of the case. Whereas what you said about it being a 7-2 decision is, at best, highly misleading.

plausible denyability imo

Please. Let's not act like we live in a country where the Courts decide our elections by decree. The voters of the United States gave the Presidency to Bush. Like in a football game, the game is not won or lost on a single play. Gore himself has a lot to blame for not winning that election. If the Supremes let Gore to continue to recount until he was ahead the conservatives would be saying the same thing about President Gore. Albeit imo our country would be better off.

Thought Gore won the popular vote.

The Presidency is not determined by direct election.

But your statement "the voters gave Bush the presidency" implies that it is....

Jesus. I was 16 during the 2000 Election--still a political junkie though--I wanted Gore to win. I'm just saying our Courts do not decree the President. No matter how the Supremes ruled it would be a cluster**** and the other side would be butthurt for a generation.

Yes. Enough voters from among the several States gave Gov. Bush enough votes to entitle him to enough Electoral Votes to become the legitimate, elected President of the United States.

With the exception of Florida which was ruled on in the Court.

Well, maybe. We don't really know, and we never will. The fact is that our electoral apparatuses are not well-equipped to handle razor-thin margins. The official Florida margin was 537 votes, which was 0.06%. There is plenty of evidence that more eligible voters went to the polls on election day and tried to vote for Al Gore than for George W. Bush (e.g., Buchanan surging in the butterfly ballot counties, the post-election media recounts, etc.). Whether or not more legal ballots were cast for Bush or Gore is not an easily resolvable question, as the aforementioned media recounts show.

Of course you're right. But they decided it in a 5-4 partisan vote. If you actually follow the court closely, you'll note the irony of Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Rehnquist voting for federal intervention in a procedure that is clearly a state matter. And you're making the claim that they're not partisan. It just doesn't hold water.

I noticed United Health group, Wellpoint, Expressscripts, Humana, Aetna are all up about 7% as a group over the last 4 weeks not including today.

lol, ok.

Well reasoned argument.